What if I was a newbie? If I go to the main page where I can learn much. Who has found 100 caches (congratulations), what the cache of the month was in July of 2004 (interesting?), where to get a last minute Christmas gift (should be changed to early Christmas Gift), last months COTM winner, a state of the Association address(my fellow geocachers...). Now lets find the nominations for this months COTM. Hmm... I don't see it listed anywhere. Let's see...Articles? no that's old stuff. Geocaching Links? Noope. Forum? Nope not listed there eitherbut maybe it is an event-No. Cache Game? No. Oh well I guess they don't do that anymore.

I think the main page should tell you to what's happening or what's going to happen. Right now it is mostly a history lesson. All valuable of course, but I don't think that November Meeting Minutes gets you a great deal of interest in the organization. If COTM is important and you want participation, feature it on the main page._________________"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope." --George W. Bush, Fort Benning, Ga., Jan. 11, 2007

Yeah? You find out what other cachers who have been doing this a long time believe are great caches in the state. Sorry, but I see far too many 2 find individuals who think that a 35mm film canister in the woods that happens to be the second closest cache to their zipcode is the best cache ever. "I'm hooked!"

Perhaps if they had stumbled across our main page they would see exactly what caches others believed were great and they might stick around for more than 5 caches total.

Quote:

I think the main page should tell you to what's happening or what's going to happen. Right now it is mostly a history lesson.

Four sections of "history" and four sections of "future". Looks fairly even to me. Then again I'm wearing rose color glasses._________________Sad state of affairs.

Looks like I touched a nerve there. Seems to me if you don't like the level of participation, you might be better served not to stomp on those who provide ideas to improve the level of participation.

My point was that if you are a newbie, there is nothing to direct you to the voting for COTM. If you are a member of the OBN you know where it is. If you don't know where it is, or if it still exists, it is hard to find._________________"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope." --George W. Bush, Fort Benning, Ga., Jan. 11, 2007

I had no idea that this COTM was such a big deal. I thought it was a place to express yourself when you were impressed with a certain cache. And that the votes was just a fun little interactual gimmick thrown in there to keep people involved.
Now everyone’s picking and tearing it apart like it was a life changing occurrence to have your cache voted in or something.
Like, if my cache don’t get “cache of the month” how can it grow up to be “cache of the year”.....decade.......century......etc. sheeesh!_________________...formerly 'dachebo'.

I find it disappointing that people refuse to take the 5 minutes to write a two paragraph description of one of the caches they did recently that really took their breath away.

I will go back to the original statement of bob's and what I had a problem with it. He appeared to be complaining of a lack of involvement in the cache of the month. I get jumped on for making suggestions saying it wasn't solicited.

I guess at this point I am thoroughly confused. I don't care if you keep the cache of the month around or not. I, along with several others, have expressed our thoughts (albeit "unsolicited) that we won't vote for a cache we know nothing about.

Not that my "unsolicited" opinion means anything, but run your cache of the month any way you want. But then don't complain when people don't participate in it.

I had a tough time deciding where to start this post. This thread is moving a little faster than I can keep up right now and I didn't want to spend all night typing away...

Marsha and Silent Bob wrote:

Argh, I cannot make myself more clear on this. How can a regional vote succeed when a state wide vote cannot get more than one submission a month (4 a quarter). I would *love* to be proven wrong but I just don't see more than 1 a quarter coming from any of the out-state areas *combined*. Remember that the two more recent entries that were from outstate were nominated by people from the metro (pogopod nominated eagleyes' BASS LAKE VISTA and I nominated IBCrashen's Dark Passage).

I don't know if it would be accurate to assume that the numbers would remain the same if the system changed. I don't spend that much time looking at COTM because I've always labeled it in my head as a "metro thing". I haven't had that much interest in the "metro thing" as I do so little caching there in general. Some of our discussion here has helped me to realize that it is a little more broad than that - I hope to do some writeups in the future.

My point is that I may not be the only one that has not paid that much attention to it. By making it a regional thing, I would be hoping for more action from the caching population. Some areas may see less. Some may see more. Who knows...

I would also think that we would see an increase in the votes for the same reasons.

Silent Bob wrote:

Considering the viewership of this site from the out-staters is as low as it is (I think there were 34 people since Feb 28th, 2005) that visited from either areas that were unknown to me (possibly out of state) or listed as non-metro areas (and I was including areas like team-deadheadland as being non-metro) I have a feeling that not only will the voting be low but the chance of an acceptable number of nominations will also be low.

But does that mean that we shouldn't try to encourage people to come? MNGCA in general has done well at this - the campout up north last fall, the June event in Duluth.

Silent Bob wrote:

I have no problem with it going to a vote. If the method changes and people want something regional, quarterly, a combination of both, etc, then so be it. Don't expect anyone to stick their neck out and take over the handling of that though. We can't even get three people to write up a two paragraph submission once a month I just can't see three people taking over posting quartly submissions to the regional forums and then formatting the result for me to post to the front page.

I think the turnout of the vote (if we have one) about the change in the COTM process may help indicate the amount of people that are halfways interested in the process. Also remember that caching is a growing sport.

I'm hoping this year that MNGCA can try and funnel more people to the website - there are lots out there that aren't even AWARE it exists. I try and put the logo on each of my cache pages but I'm sure we can do more... Events are a good start but not the absolute answer.

I guess at this point I am thoroughly confused. I don't care if you keep the cache of the month around or not. I, along with several others, have expressed our thoughts (albeit "unsolicited) that we won't vote for a cache we know nothing about.

sui generis is allowed to make his opinion known as well although I believe your opinions are welcome in an open forum.

I stated that I went through your entire post history and showed that you made no suggestions to make COTM better. That statement continues to be true._________________Sad state of affairs.

Pearhead, that goes for me too. I can't vote for or against a cache unless I have visited it. This round is the first time I have seen at least two of the caches, let alone all three. So this is one of the few times I have voted.

tomslusher
_________________
"The hottest places in heck are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality" Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Personally, I think asking people to submit a few paragraphs telling about their favorite cache would be better than a vote. Then, once a month, you can print one of the submissions. When you start to get low on submissions, ask again for people to submit.

Just my two cents,

tomslusher
_________________
"The hottest places in heck are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality" Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

I stand corrected. You offered a suggestion to do what we do now minus the vote.

Because this suggestion iss nearly identical to what we do now it still has the flaw that people will need to submit stuff. It doesn't get us any closer to resolving the root issue._________________Sad state of affairs.

I see far too many 2 find individuals who think that a 35mm film canister in the woods that happens to be the second closest cache to their zipcode is the best cache ever.

This caught my eye...

Personally, I don't care if someone has 2 finds, or 1002 finds. I don't care if their favorite cache is the one sitting in the woods by their house. The point I'm trying to make, is that an individual must be respected regardless of how "stupid" other cachers think their opinion is. Since when is geocaching so regulated, that we are told when our "favorite cache" is not actually that cool, and we are discredible due to our lack of experience. C'mon people! This is simply interpretation! We all get different things out of geocaching for different reasons! You just can't start a vote, and then when you finally get people to vote, go around telling them that their votes are pointless, because "You" don't like their favorite cache. Sheesh!!!

This is why I phase in and out of geocaching! After taking the crap for a while, I have to go into submission and vent the steam. Then, when I decide to bite the bullet and face the negative arrogant people again, i jump back in because I love the sport. Too bad it's got to be like that.

After this month's voting COTM will no longer be spearheaded by me. If someone else is interested in taking up the responsibility for its guidance feel free. I am unable to find a happy medium that all members can agree on while still keeping what I feel are the best parts of COTM in tact.

There are currently two nominations in the queue (one from me and one from s4xton) that fall under "caches with a scenic view". If you are interested in taking up the responsibilities of solicitation of nominations, posting of nominations, and final write up of the COTM for posting to the main page please let me know privately and I will forward them on to you._________________Sad state of affairs.